Three
by bookwormtsb
Summary: Ignotus, Antioch and Cadmus.  One's grieving, one's fighting and the other's trying to make sense of it all.


Three.

"Shut up Antioch." Cadmus sniffs shouldering his heavy leather sack and walking ahead of us. "Ant?" I asked into the darkness hoping my brother would hear me. "Yeah Ignotus?" I shoot him a glare at the use of my full name and just decide to keep walking. "Ig. Tell me you big baby." I crinkle my brow. He's just a patronizing idiot. My brother grabs my wrist and spins me towards him. Antioch has always been the best looking out of the three of us Peverell brothers. His messy chestnut hair is cut long and evenly around his strong face. His dark brown eyes are trained on my face. I fidget and he exhales tiredly. "Just spit it out." I roll my eyes and delve into my own much smaller sack. Upon pulling out crinkled ink stained map his eyebrows raise skeptically. "There's a river coming up. It looks pretty wide and will probably be deep too. " I point to a faded blue line on my yellowed parchment map. Antioch just stares at me with his mouth hanging open slightly before he begins laughing. He looks down at his scuffed brogues then back up at my confused expression. "You, little brother are dimmer than an ogre." I glare at him, hurt. Antioch shoves his hand into the pocket of his yellowed shirt and pulls out his wand. "Um. What's this dumbo?" I sigh tiredly.

"What if the bridge has a guardian?" He adopts that gormless open-mouth expression for the second time in the last few minutes. "A what?" How could my brother be so stupid? "Have you picked up a book since you left Hogwarts Ant?" He fidgets uncomfortably. "Yeah course." I raise an eyebrow.

"Have you opened it?" More fidgeting.

"Of course little brother."

"Have you absorbed any of the information?" He coughs lightly and decides to ignore me. "I've been busy." I roll my eyes.

"Ant, you're 23. It's been 5 years since you left Hogwarts and since then all you've done is be a nuisance and a scoundrel." I wag a finger angrily at him.

"Sorry _father. _Get over it brother you're just jealous because I'm out here living while you're stuck in your room reading those ridiculous books and on occasion when you do surface to the world you get red if a girl even looks at you, which they don't." He's sneering and red by the end of his derogatory speech. Cadmus hasn't noticed our argument. He notices when my fist makes contact with the side of my brothers face. He notices when a string of colourful swear words are spat from my mouth. "Oi!" Cadmus yells grabbing the two of us by the scruff of our robes and separating us. It's the most alive I've seen Cadmus in months. It's almost worth punching Antioch again to see the colour return to Cad's cheeks, to see the familiar glint in his eyes. But the moment's passed. I let myself relax against Cadmus and he stares at me in disbelief. "Merlin Ignotus. Behave yourself!" He's back. I could have bellowed with joy. It's been 7 months since she died. And by she I mean Arianna Prewett. She was the love of Cadmus' life, with her long locks of gold and brilliant blue eyes. They balanced each other. It was heart breaking to see the transformation in my brother when she died. He's still not whole. I take in my brothers tousled dark brown hair, his pale skin, high cheek bones and almost black eyes. He's so skinny but I can see the willowy muscles outlined under his loose robes. His skin is flushed and for a moment he's almost his 20 year old self. Then the moment passes and the shell of a man that Arianna left behind is back. I shrug him off and glare at Antioch before stalking off.

It's getting darker and darker. "Lumos." I whisper and hear Cadmus doing the same behind me, behind him Antioch sniffs and alights his own wand. It's been seven days since we left home.

Mother was hugging us and crying as we walked out the door. It's me that she hugged for the longest. Antioch barely gave her a backwards glance, he's been grown up for a long time, Cadmus would have if he had been himself. Instead he took off up the street to Arianna's house and kissed the scuffed wooden gate. "I'll come back love." Then he laid down a single daisy by her grave and turned away, his eyes leaking glassy orbs. It's me that looks the most like mother. We share the same unruly black hair and light hazel eyes, I miss her an unbelievable amount. I'm only 17. Here I am. Skipping my last year of school to go on a mission with my brothers. One who's still mourning and the other who constantly teasing me over the fact I've never been kissed. Not once. It doesn't bother me that much. _Who are you kidding Ig? _ I prefer books anyway.

Each of us have our sacks. Identical aesthetically, then you get to the contents. Mine are filled with books and potions ingredients, a few items of clothing and mother's locket. Antioch has all his clothes and a few healing items. Mostly bandages, my brother fights a lot. Then there's Cadmus. His is filled with letters. All the letters Arianna ever wrote to him and a ring. He wears a thin band on his own finger but this is the ring that he planned to give to Arianna. This is the ring that's been on his person since the night Mr. Prewett turned up on our front porch still in the clothes he'd slept in, he'd been rumpled and his eyes red with tears. "It's Arianna, she's gone." The days after both Mister Prewett and Cadmus had been absorbed in their own misery. It was sad to see.

"IGNOTUS!" I turn around shocked. Both my brothers are glaring at me wildly, they're bright eyed with their faces red. "Yeah?" They stare at each other in disbelief. "You just walked off at the speed of-"

"Light!" Antioch finishes and grabs me by the front of my robes. "Ignotus. You are 17 and alone on a lonely road at twilight is never a good idea." I glare furiously at Antioch. "If I'm too _young_ to be walking down a road before dark then why did you bring me." I'm fuming. Cadmus shakes his head and looks at his sandals. "I'm not sure, you're obviously too immature." Antioch spits out the words. I punch him for the second time this evening. My front two knuckles catch the protruding line of his jaw and his head flicks back. His head snaps back a moment later and `I smack all four knuckles into his nose. Wet, red, sticky liquid spurts across the back of my hand and he collapses. Cadmus smacks me. _Wait what? _Cadmus had slapped me. Right across the cheek leaving a red blush. I look at him shocked. "Grow up Ignotus."


End file.
